Radle opts out

County Commissioner Paul Elizondo likely will have at least one challenger to worry about in next year’s Democratic primary. But it won’t be Patti Radle.

After months of agonizing, Radle, who represented the West Side on the City Council from 2003 to 2007, has dropped the idea of running as an alternative to Elizondo in Precinct 2.

“I have a lot of compassion and concern about the issues that the Commissioners should be concerned about — justice and health,” Radle said in an e-mail Monday night. “However, I don’t feel running for that office is what I’m suppose to do right now. There is a lot to do in our area of town regarding issues of poverty and it is a real joy to be able to have some effect on those issues working with a great community of volunteers at Inner City Development.”

Inner City Development is the nonprofit Radle and her husband, Rod Radle, launched 40 years ago.

With her long track record of community activism, Radle — an Anglo running in a heavily Hispanic council district — clinched a 2003 runoff with 53 percent of the vote. Two years later, she cruised to re-election against two rivals, securing nearly eight of every 10 votes. Radle, who speaks Spanish, won both races with relatively little in the bank.

The prospect of a low-dollar, grassroots campaign — a Patti Radle campaign — against Elizondo had some political types intrigued.

Another former councilwoman, Delicia Herrera, has all but formally announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination next March. Herrera, a small-business owner, won her District 6 seat in 2005 against establishment candidate Ray Lopez (who took office last June as her successor) with an army of volunteers, and she expects to wage a similar campaign against Elizondo.

Another possibility: second-term Councilman Justin Rodriguez, one of the last members who have to abide by the city’s strict — and now former — limits of two two-year terms.

Elizondo, meanwhile, appears intent on winning his seventh consecutive four-year term on Commissioners Court, and he’s building up his war chest for a primary fight. In June he staged a major fundraiser and later said he had more than $150,000 squirrelled away.

Radle said Elizondo’s pile of cash didn’t factor into her decision-making.

“How much money Paul Elizondo has in his campaign account is not a deterrent. Even if he had a half-million, if I felt running against him was what I was suppose to do at this time, I’d do it.”

She added: “I wish Commissioner Elizondo well and hope that he and the other commissioners will prioritize justice and health issues over hockey stadiums and such.”